Internet History is a feature of Internet Explorer that allows you to view the History of your, or someone elses, internet sessions. For each day you, and/or someone else, uses the internet a History folder is created. Each history folder is given its own day name (Last Week, Today, Monday, Wednesday and so on) and has two jobs to perform. The first job is to create a sub-folder for each website visited on that day - Each sub-folder is named after its website. And the second job is to create a webpage link (Link File) for each website and webpage visited on that day - Each webpage link is put into the correct website sub-folder. The structure and usage of History is identical to that of Favorites.

The purpose of History is to allow you to go back to a certain website (or webpage) simply by clicking on its link, as opposed to re-typing its www.whatever... address/url into Internet Explorer's address bar edit box. History also acts an Evidence Builder against those abusing your internet trust and those abusing the internet in general.

To see the history of the computer you are on you must first click on the FAVORITES CENTER button (Fig 1.0), which displays your Favorites by default, and then move the mouse pointer to the right so you can then click on the HISTORY button (Fig 1.1).

Fig 1.0  Click on the FAVORITES CENTER button

Fig 1.1  Click on the HISTORY button

After clicking on the HISTORY button, which also doubles up as a drop-down menu (so be sure to click on the button and not on the arrow), the main folders I mentioned at the beginning of this section (i.e Today and Wednesday) are displayed. Today is the main folder that is highlighted by default whenever you click on the HISTORY button.

Continue by clicking on the day (main folder) you want to view the history of - The day (main folder) icons are represented by a Calendar icon. In this example I clicked on Today (Fig 1.2 below) which then revealed the websites I had visited so far today (BBC, GOOGLE, TFL and YOINGCO) - Each website (sub-folder) is represented by an orange history (Back In Time) icon. If you are Working Offline (are using Internet Explorer without being connected to the Internet) you will also see a folder, in each day folder, called Computer. It reveals which Offline Webpages you have visited on that day. Offline Webpages can include searched Help files for example (i.e Microsoft Office Help pages) that are written like webpage files.

With the websites revealed for your day (i.e Today) the next thing to do is click on a website's (sub-folder's) name. In this example (Fig 1.3 below) I clicked on the TFL website (sub-folder) which then revealed all the webpages I visited within that website - Just one webpage called Transport For London Homepage.... which was its main (index) webpage. If I had visited more webpages within the TFL website HISTORY would of listed those webpages (Link Files) as well, either as a webpage (link file) or as a website (sub-folder) depending on whether or not that website diverts you to another website. For example. TFL's Journey Planner creates a new website (sub-folder) called journeyplanner.

All that is left to do now is click on a webpage's (link file's) name (Fig 1.4 below). In this example I could only click on the Transport For London Homepage.... webpage (link file) which then took me to the TFL website (Fig 1.5 below).

Fig 1.2  Click on a History day

Fig 1.3  Click on a website's name

Fig 1.4  Click on a webpage's name

Fig 1.5  Clicking on a webpage name (Fig 1.4 above) takes you to that webpage

So to recap, because a lot was explained above. After clicking on the FAVORITES CENTER button you then click on the HISTORY button. This reveals the days (main folders) you have History for (i.e Today, Wednesday and so on). From there you click on the day (main folder) you want to view the history of (i.e Today), which reveals that day's visited websites (sub-folders). Clicking on a website's (sub-folder's) name (i.e TFL) then reveals the webpage(s) you visited within that website (i.e Transport For London Homepage....). So, finally, you click on a webpage's (link file's) name in order to be taken to that webpage. And as said above, this is the whole idea of HISTORY. To be taken back to a website/webpage you have visited recently, instead of having to type that website's/webpage's name into Internet Explorer's address bar edit box each time.

Sometimes you may need more information about a particular webpage in your History. The two main reasons being that you want to know if someone has been abusing their trust on your computer and/or you just want more information. For example. You may suspect someone of looking at bad webpages (i.e containing XXX Material) or you may have many similarly named webpages in your History (i.e BBC - History and BBC - History - British History). In the latter case many history webpages might have been visited, therefore only the last part of their URL (full web address) may differ. If you need to find out the full title of a webpage and/or its URL, as well as how many times it has been visited, do the following.

Right click on the webpage's name to bring up the Options menu (Fig 2.0) and then left click on the PROPERTIES menu-item. This will display the Properties (Type, Internet Address, Last Visited and Times Visited) of that webpage (Fig 2.1).

Fig 2.0  Right click on a webpage's name and select PROPERTIES....



Fig 2.1  ....to display that webpage's History.

When the Properties window appears look at Internet Address. It shows the last part of the URL, when an URL is too long, in this case history/british/tudors/majesty_menace_01.shtml. The URL is in a selected state which means it could be copied and then pasted directly into Internet Explorer's address bar edit box (or into a Document) for example. This is because the URL is inside an edit box. If you want to see the first part of the URL simply click into the edit box and then scroll the flashing cursor leftwards until you reach the beginning of the URL (Fig 2.2) or better still press the HOME keyboard key.

Fig 2.2  Click inside the edit box and scroll leftwards, or press the HOME keyboard key, to see the beginning of the URL

From the beginning of the URL you can select the whole URL by pressing the keyboard key SHIFT and then END. This will highlight the whole URL, ready for copying (keyboard key CTRL and then C) and pasting (keyboard key CTRL and then V). Alternatively. When the URL is in its selected state (Fig 2.1 above) either copy it with keyboard key CTRL and then C or right click over it to bring up its Options menu and then select (left click on) the COPY menu-item.

Fig 2.3  Right click over the selected URL and then COPY it

You can ignore the Last Visited property because it gives the Date and Time the webpage was last visited as the Present Time, which defeats the purpose of checking when the webpage really was last visited.

You can also ignore the Times Visited property to a degree because it is not accurate enough. However. Saying this, as long as it states more than 4 you can make a case with someone that they "did not accidently look at that webpage". Usually in a scenario where you suspect someone of looking at a XXX Material webpage. Their clicking excuses usually go "It was an accident. I did not know I was entering that kind of webpage". "Oh dear. I must of clicked it twice by mistake". "Erm...well I don't know about computers that much do I". "It wasn't me, it was him". By the fourth click (fourth excuse) you can normally tell if someone is lying or not. It is at this time you should tell them "Please do not touch my computer....".

Fig 2.4  Click on a Google webpage (link file) to follow its History

Sometimes you can misread History, so be careful before you start accusing. For example. In Fig 2.4 above it could be interpreted that I have been searching Google to find links to XXX Material (pictures and/or videos) websites to do with a Naked Chef, but in fact I have been searching for Jamie Oliver's website. Jamie Oliver is a celbrity chef in London, famous for his TV show called The Naked Chef. If you need to confirm what someone has been looking at in respect of their Google searching simply click on the webpage's (link file's) name in History (Fig 2.4) and it will take you to the Google website where the searched item (Naked Chef) will be listed, together with any links that were clicked on (Fig 2.5 below).

Fig 2.5  The visited webpages are highlighted in purple

As you can see, by clicking on the Naked Chef - Google Search webpage (link file - Fig 2.4 above) I was taken to the Google website (Fig 2.5 above) where it listed Jamie Oliver links. And the top link is highlighted in purple to denote that I have visited (clicked on) that link before. This is confirmed by the link file in Fig 2.4 called jamieoliver (www.jamieoliver.com).

Unfortunately, due to the nature and play of Words, what someone searches for using a search website such as Google is not always what they want or get. For example. If you were to search for Naked Chef, Nurses Uniform or Virgin Radio the first page of Google should list all webpages to do with Jamie Oliver, A Reputable Retailer That Sells Nurses Uniforms to hospital workers for example and the Radio Station called Virgin, respectively. However. As you look at the other pages of Google (usually towards the end pages) those search words are then normally broken up (i.e into Naked + Chef, Nurses + Uniform and Virgin + Radio) in order to include more links. Therefore you would probably see XXX Material related links. If this is the case and I was to visit (click on) such a link the webpage belonging to that link would be listed in my History. Or would it? YES, if I keep my history and it is not deleted naturally or by a clean-up program. And NO, if I decided to delete the webpage (link file) from my history.

Although your Internet History (the history I have been explaining so far) is naturally deleted, with the other files that make up your History, after a certain number of days by Internet Explorer itself (see Internet Options - General TAB for more information) sometimes you might want to delete a certain part of Internet History yourself before Internet Explorer does. For example. You might want to delete Tuesday's history, A part of Tuesday's history only or Wednesday's and Friday's history but not Thursday's history. It is up to you.

To delete a day's history either select it (with the left mouse button) and then press the DEL (Delete) keyboard key or right click on it and then select (with the left mouse button) the DELETE menu-item from the Options menu that appears.

Fig 3.0  Right click on a Day (Last Week in this example) and then select the DELETE menu-item



Fig 3.1  Do you want to delete LAST WEEK's history?

If you delete a day's history, or even all the history days, you are only deleting from this history list - The history files themselves, from this history list, are still inside the Temporary Internet Files sub-folder on the computer until HISTORY (the whole thing) is deleted completely (see the Internet Options - General TAB section for more information). For example. If TUESDAY's history list has www.yoingco.com listed and you then delete TUESDAY www.yoingco.com will no longer be listed, neither will TUESDAY, but the files that make up the www.yoingco.com website will still be inside the Temporary Internet Files sub-folder. The Internet Options - General TAB section, and more specifically the Temporary Internet Files paragraph, explains more about this in detail.

Fig 3.2  Right click on a webpage's name and then select DELETE



Fig 3.3  Delete this webpage (link file) name from the History list?




Fig 3.4  The webpage (link file) name, only, has been deleted from the History list.

To add a webpage to your list of Favourites (Explained in the previous section) you simply right-click on its webpage (link file) name and then select the ADD TO FAVORITES menu-item.

Fig 4.0  Click on ADD TO FAVORITES....

Fig 4.1  ....to add a webpage to your Favorites list.

In some cases each webpage name is the same, simply because HISTORY takes the name from the webpage's own title. So how do you know which webpage is the main (index.htm) webpage and/or the webpage you want to add? Simple! Just hover the mouse pointer over a webpage's name and it will show its Tooltip (ID) window. So in Fig 4.2 below I am adding the webpage http://www.yoingco.com/main_vista.htm to my Favorites list - The webpage of the same name above it is the index.htm webpage.

Fig 4.2  Hover the mouse pointer over a webpage's name to get its ID

Fig 5.0  Left click on OPEN IN NEW WINDOW

Fig 5.1  Left click on OPEN IN NEW TAB

Normally when you are browsing the Internet each webpage stays in the same opened window. For example. If you were viewing www.google.com and then went to www.yoingco.com the contents of www.yoingco.com would replace the contents of www.google.com in your Internet Explorer window. So you would be able to see the www.yoingco.com webpage but no longer the www.google.com webpage unless you clicked on the BACK button of Internet Explorer. Fortunately, Internet Explorer has two ways of opening an additional window for webpage viewing.

Open In New Window is one way you can open an additional Internet Explorer window. Simply right click on a webpage's name in the History list and then left click on the OPEN IN NEW WINDOW menu-item (Fig 5.0 above).

Open In New Tab is the other way of opening an additional Internet Explorer window. Simply right click on a webpage's name in the History list and then left click on the OPEN IN NEW TAB menu-item (Fig 5.1 above). Unlike OPEN IN NEW WINDOW, which really opens an additional (new seperate) window, OPEN IN NEW TAB means Internet Explorer will open an additional (new) window within its own window (Fig 5.2 below) - This is what is meant by TABBED Browser. TABs are independant windows (independant processes) that exist on one main window (in this case the Internet Explorer main window). Examples of TAB windows can be seen in the Internet Options sections of the Security category.

Fig 5.3  Example of TAB windows - Google webpage (in the background, on the left) and Yoingco webpage (in the foreground, on the right)

The History list, which is normally viewed BY DATE, can be viewed in other ways. BY webSITE order, BY MOST VISITED webpage order or BY ORDER of VISITED webpages TODAY. Simply click on the arrow that is on the right-hand-side of the HISTORY button and then select from the drop-down menu that appears.

Fig 6.0  Select how you want to view your History

To close History simply click on the FAVORITES CENTER (Star) button again.

Microsoft product screen shot(s) reprinted with permission from Microsoft Corporation.  As stated here by the Microsoft Corporation.

All HTM files in the yoingco.com folder and its sub-folders are (c) John White, August 3rd 2005 - 2008. All Rights Reserved.    FREE Vista Helpline: Contact John